Mayor Sharon Weston Broome will ask the Metro Council to approve spending almost $3.7 million for a second round of improvements to the Raising Cane’s River Center, following the $2.3 million allocated last year.
The Louisiana Legislature has given preliminary approval for another $8 million for the downtown Baton Rouge event center, though it is not clear when, or even if, that money will be available.
“I think it’s imperative we work along parallel paths,” addressing short-term needs while planning for long-term viability, says Wayne Hodes with ASM Global, who manages the publicly owned facility.
The money approved last year paid for 30 items including an LED scoreboard and various hockey-related expenditures. Officials were gearing up to host three hockey games to gauge the sport’s viability, which led to the current three-year deal for a minor league hockey expansion team.
As for the new $3.681 million request, set to be introduced at today’s Metro Council meeting and voted on two weeks later, most ($2.4 million) would pay for retractable seating. Rather than pushing a button, the current seats need to be physically moved with forklifts, which takes several hours and makes it harder to ready the building for the next use, Hodes says.
The newly approved state construction budget includes $8 million for “planning design and renovation” of the River Center, but the allocation is a low priority—what state officials call Priority 5—meaning the dollars might not be available for years, if ever.
Visit Baton Rouge has launched a study of the River Center’s competitiveness with comparable facilities in peer cities. After that study is ready, Baton Rouge state lawmakers likely would argue for moving the project up the priority ladder.
Hodes says the $8 million should be sufficient for the design and engineering phase of a more complete overhaul. He says typically, in year 20 of a facility, you want to start thinking about what it will look like in year 30.
“We’re in year 47,” he says.